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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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Dave Bonta

March 27, 2009 by Dave Bonta

The rain-soaked forest glistens in the sun, bejeweled. The air is full of traffic noise and gnats with shining wings.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags phoebe
March 26, 2009 by Dave Bonta

First rainy morning in weeks, but how quickly things turn to rust: rasp of a starling, a red-winged blackbird’s call, a scolding squirrel.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags gray squirrel, red-winged blackbird, starling
March 25, 2009 by Dave Bonta

A harsh cooing from the pine tree closest to the porch, like a hawk crossed with a dove. Two crows fly in, scold for a minute, and fly off.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, white pines
March 24, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Another cold, clear morning, with just enough wind to keep my sunlit breath from blocking my view. A killdeer calls from high overhead.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags deer
March 23, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Cardinal song followed by gargling laughter: a starling sits at the top of a locust, its bill a gleaming needle in the deep blue sky.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cardinal, starling
March 22, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Over the clang of church bells, the ethereal cries of wild swans: a huge high V off to the north. Sorry, folks. G-d has left the building.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
March 21, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Cold and clear. Looking west, I spot a bright white dot on the far side of the field: the breast of a red-tailed hawk shining in the sun.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
March 20, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Swirling snow, swan music, song sparrow, the tapping of a woodpecker, a chipmunk’s tock tock tock—forget God. Is your moment big enough?

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags chipmunks
March 19, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Dark rain clouds without much rain in them. The pure notes of tundra swans drift down from the immaculate tundra of the upper air.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags tundra swans
March 16, 2016March 18, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Bluebird, white-throated sparrow, a starling’s liquid note, and high overhead, a killdeer: the sky must be blue above the fog.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags bluebird, deer, fog, killdeer, starling
March 17, 2009 by Dave Bonta

In the dim light of a misty morning, rain-slick surfaces glow: green lichens, purple raspberry canes, the yellow blades of foxtail millet.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black raspberry, foxtail millet, lichen
April 15, 2013March 16, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Flushed from hiding, the Cooper’s hawk easily eludes the crow, skimming the treetops like a wide-fletched arrow still attached to the bow.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Cooper's hawk, hawks
March 15, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Joining the robins, titmice and song sparrow in the dawn chorus: a barred owl. The deer grazing in the yard look up, swiveling their ears.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American robin, deer, tufted titmouse
March 14, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Thin clouds at mid-morning. Four nuthatches in the treetops are all raising the same argument, the sun a yellow limit point in their midst.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags white-breasted nuthatch
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On This Day

  • September 7, 2025
    Partly cloudy and cool at sunrise, with more yellow and orange leaves than I’ve ever seen this early in the fall: not just walnut and black gum but black birch, tulip poplar, and even a few maples, just as our 30 acres of goldenrod approach their peak of bloom. I’m…
  • September 7, 2024
    A soft, steady rain at dawn. At sunrise, a hummingbird buzzes in to sip from the jewelweeds under the porch roof dripline.
  • September 7, 2023
    Just at the point where the half-moon loses its share of the shadows, a migrant thrush calls from the woods’ edge: a few soft notes, then silence. The sky turns pink.
  • September 7, 2022
    Half an hour before sunrise, the first migrant wood thrush arrives at the woods’ edge, calling softly. A sneeze gathers in my sinuses.
  • September 7, 2021
    Sunlight leaks down from the treetops. A blue jay’s brassy call. Then the silence resumes where it left off.

See all...

Related book

Cover of Ice Mountain with a linocut of a big ridgetop tree.

What I do after I sit on the porch. One winter and spring's daily walks distilled into short poems with linocut illustrations by Beth Adams.

Header image: detail from Paper Garden by Clive Hicks-Jenkins (used by permission)

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